Diplomatic Text
Septr. 1779
My dear Hammy
It was not in my powour
to write to you till to Day and I do asure you
that it gives me great pleasure to write to you,
you ded desire me to give you the account of what
we have done since we have been hear. The first
night we set with mama and worked and the
second night we played at commers[1] at the first
pole Princeʃs Royals one and the second Mr lite[2]
one and besides I ought to have told you
yesterday Mama went out with papa
in the faton and my Brothers
and conolel Lake[3] went on
Horse back and I do asure you that
we are all very happy here. pray give
my love to every body there. and
I ought to have told you that
Lady Holdderneʃs and Lady
wamouth you no how I do dislike
her and like Lady Holderneʃs
but I do promeʃs you that I will
take a great dile of cere not to set
by her at Diner I long for
tusdy my Sisters are just gane out
of walking with papa and Mama
and all My Brothers and Goully
and all the gentlemen.
tell Ernest I long to see him
but rather I will write him
a letter.
My dear Hammy
I am your ever efection
Elizabeth
▼
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The card game Commerce.
2. Either Henry Lyte, Master of the Robes and Privy Purse, or his wife, as the reading of the title is uncertain.
3. Lieutenant-Colonel Lake, Equerry of the Stables.
4. This postscript appears at bottom of p.3, written upside down.
5. Moved address panel here from centre of p.3 when unfolded.
Normalised Text
My dear Hammy
It was not in my power
to write to you till to Day and I do assure you
that it gives me great pleasure to write to you,
you did desire me to give you the account of what
we have done since we have been here. The first
night we sat with mama and worked and the
second night we played at commers at the first
pool Princess Royals won and the second Mr Lyte
won and besides I ought to have told you
yesterday Mama went out with papa
in the phaeton and my Brothers
and colonel Lake went on
Horse back and I do assure you that
we are all very happy here. pray give
my love to every body there. and
I ought to have told you that
Lady Holderness and Lady
Weymouth you know how I do dislike
her and like Lady Holderness
but I do promise you that I will
take a great deal of care not to sit
by her at Dinner I long for
Tuesday my Sisters are just gone out
of walking with papa and Mama
and all My Brothers and Goully
and all the gentlemen.
tell Ernest I long to see him
but rather I will write him
a letter.
My dear Hammy
I am your ever affectionate
Elizabeth
▼
expect this Letter
answered
Kew
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Princess Elizabeth to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/1/3/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Princess Elizabeth
Place sent: unknown
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 26 September 1779
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Princess Elizabeth to Mary Hamilton. She writes an account of what she has been doing since Mary Hamilton has been away from her. She reports that for the first night she sat with the Queen and worked, whilst on the second they played 'commers' [the card game 'Commerce']. She continues to talk of acquaintances, Lady Holderness [Mary Doublet (1721-1801), Mary Holdernesse, a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte], whom she likes, and Lady Wamouth [sic] [Lady Elizabeth Cavendish-Bentinck, Viscountess Weymouth, who was one of Queen Charlotte's Ladies of the Bedchamber at this date], whom she does not. Elizabeth asks Hamilton to tell Ernest [Prince Ernest (1771-1851), 5th son of George III, Duke of Cumberland, King of Hanover] that she longs to see him and that she will write to him.
Length: 1 sheet, 233 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2016/17 provided by The John Rylands Research Institute.
Research assistant: Isabella Formisano, former MA student, University of Manchester
Research assistant: Carla Seabra-Dacosta, MA student, University of Vigo
Transliterator: Andrew Gott, dissertation student, University of Manchester (submitted June 2012)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021